Monday, February 12, 2018

posed or unposed? a little adventure in California

It's close to midnight and I don't usually post this late but I'm trying to be scheduled this week for our "family challenge" we are doing and it all starts tomorrow so I've got to slap some things together here on the blog speedy quick so I can still keep up on my recording!

I've been thinking about posed vs. unposed pictures lately.

But first a preface: we snuck the girls out of school for a few days last week and headed over to California to bask in family time. I guess we are in a new phase of life where we have to call it "family" time even when someone isn't there...otherwise we'd never have family time! Gosh dang Hawaii took our Elle away. But we were SO glad we got her when Max actually arrived.

And we were so thankful to be in this beautiful place with everyone we could get!

...riding around on bikes, the wind playing with our hair making us feel alive.

While we were there Grace and I had a little conversation about posed pictures vs. candid since she's trying to get a little more photography under her belt.

I personally love love love unposed pictures. Sure, the posed smiling ones serve a purpose and seem to be easier in lots of ways...especially since I'm in a rut with those puppies.

But there's just something so beautiful about a non-posed picture. Dave is personally really biased towards those ones. Grace loves them too. So I'm trying to get more of this:

And this:

And this:

Oh, and this:

Rather than this:

(Although Lucy's still rocking the "candid"...she could NOT seem to pull her nose out of that book!)

And this:

Ok, yes, those girls are darling and I love those smiles. But I think it's interesting as I look through the pictures we took...I'm so drawn to the more candid ones.

(Although come on, that last one was pretty cute. LOOK at that BOY who's with us!! Still makes me smile every minute.)

Here are some good old iPhone pictures to show how foggy it was one of the mornings:

Max was teaching Claire some volleyball moves so they could get hot enough to scramble right into that freezing ocean in the fog:

(Can you see them in there?)

Sure cleared up quick though. See, this picture is fine and all, but I'd love to have a candid of Lucy's excitement when she finished the last parts of TWO of those books she's clutching and started into the third, just sitting there on her beach chair ;)

Max is so schedule-oriented right now and loves to get in some workouts so we had some kind of fun family workouts while we were there.

I took this picture after we made up on this grassy area by the Balboa pier...

Each of us came up with an exercise to do in each corner of this field. For example, I started in one corner and chose 30 burpees. So we all did those and then we ran to the next corner where dave picked jumping lunges and told us how many. Next corner Max picked, and so on. We did that twice around and ran to and from where we were staying so it was a good one.

Why do I get so happy working out with my family??

You might wonder where Lucy was...she couldn't get her nose out of those books for that one, but she was all over this one:

It's the "deck of cards" workout. We divided our family into two teams and each team had to pick cards from the deck to figure out what they had to do. You could do it with any exercise, but we chose to do sit ups when you drew a heart, jumping jacks with spades, squats with clubs and leg lifts with diamonds. (The amount is determined by the number on the card you pick...and the jumping jacks were x2). It was a contest to see who could get through the most cards first and Lucy was ALL OVER IT. In fact, I think she came up with the idea.

Made me happy to have us scrambling all over the place, moving, breathing, working hard.

We spent one day at Knott's Berry Farm where I think we waited in one line the whole day.

That place was empty!

"Ghost Rider" was the ride that surprised us all...we weren't expecting much but it was awesome!

(Dave didn't advocate very well for his position in that last picture...maybe he was protesting because it wasn't candid ;)

Lucy was a good subject for a candid one though:

(She did NOT want to go on the "scary" rides and was pretty content to wait for us with her book.)

Tea cups and swings were her favorite and she got her fill on those ones with no lines I tell you!

I thought the amount of timber used on Ghost Rider was pretty amazing.

Here's Max wondering if his mother really was going to talk him into going on the "Supreme Scream:"

...which looked like this:

That sucker was HIGH!

And it was SO fun. I think everyone was glad I talked them into it. Man, I really love a good amusement park I tell you!

I love riding bikes in California. Especially when this is at the end of your ride:

(Grace was working on her candids for that one above;)

Lucy finished yet another book:

Not much could pry her out of that thing...except for cards of course:

That girl is ON when it comes to those things.

So, back to the question...candid or posed?

Maybe the selfie is the answer:

HA!

We do love the family selfies in this family as inspired by that handsome guy up there in the middle.

Grace and I did do one night with more unposed experimentation in that beautiful place. No posing allowed. We need to do that more often...that's kind of a fun challenge.

12 comments:

Looks heavenly to be together again - minus Elle. Can you tell me where you stopped for your treat at the end of your bike ride? I’ll be there in two weeks and wanting to stop at the best places for treats. I can even ride a bike to get it 😉

Whoops sorry I'm late responding, but maybe I'm still catching you in time. That treat is a Bonzai Bowl...you can look it up on google, it's a tradition for us when we go there. We love taking the ferry to Balboa Island and getting Balboa Bars at "Dad's" as well. Have fun!

Looks like a fun trip and always hate when one is missing...just feel the void, but glad you could still get away and have a great time. My husband and I are going to San Diego next week, I have never been to California so we are looking forward to it!! Any recommendations...like, have to check out this spot or eat here??

Shoot I hope I'm not too late! We just google things and look through Yelp for ratings, but we do love Bonzai Bowls, Balboa Bars, Sanchos Tacos, and riding bikes up and down the boardwalk. Oh there's a Thai place I think called Mint Thai by the Balboa Pier that we love too. We love the ferris wheel by the ferry. It's a fast one with great views. Have a great time!

I agree that there is a place for both I mean posed pictures can be super cute but I love a candid one, it really captures what's going on in the moment and what everyone is feeling. It captures the "true" experience. Love all your pics though...

My mom reads this blog but I saw all these pictures from newport! I live in newport so its funny to see pictures of places where I hang out! I hope you guys had fun! Next time check out Sanchos tacos on the peninsula, sooo good!